It's a mixed week on the home market. Granted, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted is coming out, which made more than $200 million domestically and should sell quite well on the home market. On the other hand, the second biggest first run release is That's My Boy, which failed to make an impact at the box office. There is also a flood of weaker releases, secondary Blu-ray releases, and Christmas releases, much of which I would consider filler. The signal to noise ratio is a little off. As for the best releases of the week, there are some great TV on DVD releases like Mad Men: Season Five and Degrassi: Season 11, Part 2. There are also some limited releases, like Moonrise Kingdom on Blu-ray Combo Pack and even some Direct-to-DVD releases, like Excision on Blu-ray. All of these were contenders for Pick of the Week. In the end I went with Mad Men: Season Five for Pick of the week, while Degrassi: Season 11, Part 2 earned Puck of the Week.
More...

Anne Hathaway played a princess in each of her first three wide releases; however, only Ella Enchanted was a proper fairytale. It also didn't do as well as the other two films did. Granted, live action kids movies, especially those aimed at girls, tend to struggle at the box office. Is this one of the better films in the genre? Should it have performed better? And will fans of the movie want to upgrade to the Blu-ray?
More...

With the last of this summer's worldwide releases opening last weekend, the international details are once again dominated by smaller films. And to compound matters, most of those are only making noise in one of two markets. However, over the next few weeks there are plenty of big films opening in big markets and the International Details column should start showing signs of life soon.
More...

For the first time in many weeks there was a real race for top spot on the international charts, also, for the first time in many weeks The Incredibles didn't win that race. Boosted by debuts in 22 additional markets, Ocean's Twelve took top spot with $28.9 million on 3900 screens in 27 markets for a early total of $35.2 million. Compared to the original the results are mixed. IN many places it is a lot lower when compared in local currency, but thanks to the Dollar's extended losing streak, it's much higher in American funds. For instance, the film opened in first place in France with 5.7 million Euros, down 16% from its predecessor, however, that's $7.5 million in American funds, a increase of 28%. Other highlights include $5.3 million in Germany, $3.5 million in Spain, $2.2 million in Italy and $1.4 million in both Holland and Switzerland and just shy of $1 million in Sweden. The film remained in first place in Australia despite dropping 50% at the box office to just $1.8 million.
More...

Every week films get a second chance at success from the home market; or, in some cases, a first chance at success. Here is a list of wide releases, limited releases and a few from the growing TV on DVD section, including the co-winners of the DVD Pick of the Week, Futurama - Volume 4 - Buy from Amazon and The Girl Next Door - Buy from Amazon: Unrated Version.
More...

This was a weird weekend. We had a record-breaking event when two movies opened with $20 million and that's the first time that's ever happened in April. However, the total box office was still down more than 5% from last weekend. It was up 6% from the same time last year, sort of. It's getting really confusion doing the yearly comparisons because last year April had four weekends, while this year it has five.
More...

Only one of the five movies released managed to live up to expectations, and with that I think it's safe to say 2004's winning streak came to an end. The week-to-week drop-off was 9.4%, and while 2004 was up 17% from the same time last year, it's increase of last Easter was much less at just 7.6%. Year-to-date is up 9% but 2004 will have a tough time keeping up with 2003 in May.
More...

With four movies already in 3000 or more theatres, it was slim pickings for the five movies opening. The top draw could only manage 7th spot on this week's theatre count charts and one of the new openers couldn't even make the top ten. Even so, a new release should still take the top spot.
More...

During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. This week saw a deceptively poor crop of site as there were a lot of movie site launched / updated / released, more than 30 in fact. However, very few of them even came close to the being considered for this week's award. It's so bad I've spent the last 3 hours looking for a gem of movie site that I may have missed in previous weeks. In the end it was Kill Bill: Volume 2 - Official Site that won the award with only one or two other that were even briefly considered. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...

With summer just around the corner ... Yes I know Spring started a week ago, but this is the movie industry, we do things differently. So with Summer just around the corner it's time for the Summer Movie Preview, Part 1 - April. In April we have nearly 20 films opening wide over 5 weekends, or almost 4 per weekend. That much variety should please moviegoers, but that much competition will kill the chances of half the movies released.
More...

During the past week promotional websites for several movies
were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates including the winner for the week, Connie and Carla - Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...

During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates including the winner for the week, The Ladykillers - Official Site. If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...

During the past week promotional websites for several movies were launched and some older ones added additional content. Here the list of this week's releases, a couple of new sites and few updates including the winner for the week, Dawn of the Dead - Official Site . If you know of any new movie websites not on this list feel free to e-mail me with the details.
More...

The shaded area represents the expected performance range for a film, based on its opening weekend box office. 95% of films fall within the shaded area. If a film trends towards the top end of the shaded area, it has good legs compared to the average film; if it trends towards the bottom end of the shaded area, it has poor legs. The predictive area is based on movies from the past 5 years.

Full financial estimates for this film, including domestic and international box office, video sales, video rentals, TV and ancillary revenue
are available through our research services. For more information, please contact us at research@the-numbers.com.